The dragon's harem

Arad looked at the aphrodisiac bottle for a few seconds and smiled. “Let’s just say you misunderstood how to use it.”

He gulped the whole bottle in a second, and Tyal gasped. “What are you doing? What if it hurt you?”

Arad laughed, “Come on, you know such a thing can’t affect me.” He threw the empty bottle to her. “Tell her that it didn’t work: you thought I was supposed to be the one to drink it.”

As if a light bulb illuminated over her head, Tyal smiled, “I see! And how about I also say it had the opposite effect? Ruining the mood for the night?”

Claug laughed, “That would give them something to think about in the morning.”

Tyal looked at the door. She can’t speak to her mother right away. She’d have to wait until morning.

“To think they aren’t just trying to kill Arad but to force Tyal to drop out of the fight.” Malina growled, “Should I pay them a visit tonight?”

“No,” Arad looked at her with a stern face. “It works in our favor like this. Let them burn themselves to the ground.”

The more Gale and his wives struggled, the more reasons Arad and Zeus would have to force them to step down from the throne. But those reasons need to be a bit silly and nothing too incriminating since the goal isn’t to kill Gale and his wives but to make them step down.

Soon, Arad found himself on the bed with the four women asleep around him. He would’ve gone to sleep if not for what was happening with his other incarnation.

****

“AH! DAMN IT!” Tempo’s loud cry boomed across the sky. His passive face didn’t change, and his eyes remained wide open, focused on the hellish scenery in front of him.

“Is this normal?” Arad stood beside him, looking at the ash-drowned hills. This horrid place looked like a pale grey desert of ash, embers, and fire.

“I’m sure it isn’t.” Eris walked forth and looked around. “Last time I saw a map, this place was supposed to be a vast green land of emerald hills and beautiful grooves.”

“By the gods, who did this?” Amber growled as she spotted a mummified human, dried by the heat and ash like bacon.

“A volcano must’ve erupted close by.” Tempo looked around, making a conscious decision to keep his voice low. “Must be Mount Rahmore.”

Eris stared at him with a shocked face. “Mount Rahmore was supposed to be a mountain, not a volcano.”

“Every mountain is a sleeping volcano. Never trust them.” Tempo looked around, “This is one of the Volcanic Titans’ vessel states. I can’t just abandon them now.”

Tempo’s intentions were clear. He wanted to save the survivors of the eruption, and Arad was his best bet. With the overpowered abilities of a void dragon, locating and saving the humans would be a far easier task.

“The longer we stay here, the more likely the damage is going to spread. I’m sure this was caused by that abomination called Damnation.”

Tempo shook his head, “But I can’t leave the humans to die.”

Tempo unsheathed his sword, “It won’t take me long. I’ll go and shut down the volcano. You three search and rescue the humans trapped beneath the ash. I’m sure many of them had survived, especially those who were underground.”

Tempo’s blade turned bright red with fire, and he burst forward like a meteor, disappearing into the distance.

But the moment he started moving, the ash around them shifted. It contorted and swirled up, condensing into humanoid forms in the blink of an eye. Before Tempo could make it far, an Ash Spawn lunged at him from the pale hills, swinging a rusted, old sword with crimson flames roaring from its edge.

“Damn it! We’re surrounded!” Amber cried as she looked around, seeing over a hundred ash spawns standing around them, ready to attack.

But at that moment, all of the ash spawns burned with fire, and their eyes flashed with newfound power, doubling their presence.

Arad’s eyes almost immediately noticed what those things really were. “Tempo! Those are human and titan souls trapped in bodies of ash and embers. They are most like Damnation’s minions, the same as the Cronos Rapturs of Raptur that I told you about. Some are weak, but some are really powerful.”

Among the hundred Ash spawns, Arad could spot at least ten Titans.

“Titans? Why are they small?” Tempo looked back, taking a stance, ready to counter any other attack.

“To better fight us, of course.” Arad looked around and counted all the Ash Spawns. He can blast them all at once, but what if some humans were trapped beneath the ground? He would be killing them all.

Arad looked at the ground. And couldn’t see anything. Not because there were no souls down there but because a wall of magic blocked his vision. Damnation must’ve figured out that he can see souls and did that to make sure he doesn’t start rampaging.

“Arad!” Eris looked at him, “Are there any humans beneath us?”

“I can’t tell. We have to be careful.” Arad replied, and Eris growled, cursing under her breath. The human Ash Spawns are easy to deal with, but the Titans’ Ash Spawns are deadly.

“Damn it all.” But with her curse, the Ash Spawns flashed once more with fire, growing even stronger than before.

Arad was late to realize it and only now figured it out. He immediately glared at Eris and Amber, “Don’t curse like that here. It makes them stronger. That abomination is called Damnation for a reason.”

Tempo took a deep breath and his sword flashed through the air, severing several of the Ash Spawn in half with a torrent of flames. He flew between them like a flash of light, his blade reaping one Ash Spawn after another until he was back beside Arad and the rest.

Thirteen Ash Spawns, including two Titans, were cut down by Tempo in just a few seconds. But that was the moment they saw the second problem. Those Ash Spawns stood right back up, fully healed as if nothing happened.

“They won’t die until we destroy the souls, but that would prevent them from going to either heaven or hell.” Arad growled, “This will be far more annoying than Raptur.”